Officials ordered to smoke cigarettes
Local government officials in China have been ordered to smoke cigarettes to boost the economy.
Officials in Hubei province have been ordered to puff their way through 230,000 packs of locally made cigarettes worth £400,000.
The edict threatens to fine officials who "fail to meet their targets" or are caught smoking rival brands manufactured in neighbouring provinces.
Local authorities in Gong'an county are taking the cigarette quota seriously and have established a "special taskforce" to enforce it.
According to a local newspaper, a teacher from a village middle school said officials burst unannounced into the school one afternoon and started sifting through the ashtray and bins in the staff-room.
Three "non-compliant" cigarette butts were discovered by the "cigarette marketing consolidate team" which informed the teacher he had violated the related civil servants "cigarette usage rule".
After some negotiation the school was spared a fine, but subjected to "public criticism" for "undisciplined practices".
China's government has ordered massive government spending at both national and provincial levels to prop up the economy following plummeting demand for Chinese exports abroad.
"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team.
China has 350 million smokers, about a million of whom die each year from smoking-related illnesses.
